Meet the New Face of Wild Turkey Bourbon: Matthew McConaughey

Wild Turkey Master Distiller Jimmy & Eddie Russell with Creative Director Matthew McConaughey

Wild Turkey pinned a somewhat cryptic post to the top of their Facebook and Twitter accounts the other day that simply said, “Change is coming to Wild Turkey on August 1st. But don’t worry, we’re not talking about the bourbon.” Some were guessing that long time Master Distiller Jimmy Russell would be announcing his retirement. Well, we have good news, Jimmy’s not going anywhere. In fact, you can hear Jimmy in his own words in the short film below.

I’ve never worked a day in my life. To me, it’s not work, it’s something I enjoy. The day it’s work, it’s time to retire.”
~ Master Distiller Jimmy Russell

So, What’s the Big News?

The Wild Turkey brand has a new creative director. Not the kind of creative director that you find by placing an ad on LinkedIn or Monster, no, the new Creative Director is Academy Award winner and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor winner, Matthew McConaughey. As creative director McConaughey will write and direct the advertising spots as well as appear on camera.

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In a quote from the New York Times, it sounds like McConaughey’s role is not to remind the current fans to pick up another bottle of Wild Turkey, no, his job is to introduce a whole new generation of Millenials to the Wild Turkey brand. McConaughey is quoted saying, “They can smell it…Millennials, and I know this for a fact, can smell solicitation. And it’s a turnoff. The best ads are not solicitous.”

In the short film McConaughey says, “The folks at Wild Turkey came to me a few years ago to be the celebrity spokesman for their brand and their new campaign and I really liked the idea but, the more I thought about it, I said look, I want to be more than just the face in the campaign, I want to have my hands in the clay of how we tell the story. I want to be a part of the whole story not just the character in it. So, this is my new gig, Creative Director of the new Wild Turkey campaign.”

“I found a story here in Kentucky, I found a story here in the Russell’s, I found a story here in Wild Turkey that I think deserves to be told. I find it entertaining, I find it inspiring. We aren’t going to be for everybody and that’s ok. If we’re for you, you’ll know. And as Jimmy says, hey, if this doesn’t work, we’re going to be stuck with a whole hell of a lot of Bourbon, and ah, there are worse things to be stuck with.”

The official tagline for the campaign is “It’ll Find You.”